In Remembrance

To all the moms who lost a son, daughter,

grandson, or granddaughter...

And to all the sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters who lost a mom...

We have not forgotten.

Another Week Gone...

This week was certainly eventful, as we had Gracie's birthday and a camping trip. If I were to include every fabulously cute picture of my children (and really, aren't they all?) then you would have to schedule your meals around reading the blog because we took (are you ready for this...?) four hundred and seventy pictures.

Yep. The beauty of digital cameras.

The non-beauty is that I have to go through each one of them at some point and save, label, crop, or send them to the round file. But not today. Today I will share with you the highlights of the two events, and maybe at some point in the future post more pictures and pass on the wisdom I learned while camping with a two year old and five month old.

Happy Birthday Two You

Gracie helped make her birthday cupcakes.
Can we eat it now mom?

Of course, they had to be Elmo!

News of her love for Elmo has reached it target audience,
as she was given a lot of Elmo gifts!

She loved having "Happy Birthday" sung to her!

She was fascinated by the candle, and did a
very good job of blowing it out all by herself!

She got a "Hokey Pokey Elmo" and loved it.
She cried when we took it away to give her
another gift to open!

She has gotten much better at opening gifts, although
she quickly got bored of opening and wanted to
play with the ones she'd already gotten!

Gracie had a great birthday party, and loved being the center of attention. I don't think she quite understood what it was all about, but after a week of asking if it was her birthday, we finally got her to say yes. Success!
 
Next Stop...
 

Wow! This outdoors thing is fun!
When can I get down and play in the dirt?

Cousin John pulling Gracie around the lake.

Daddy and Gracie roasted hot dogs for dinner.

Too much fun! Gracie fell asleep on the way back to camp.

Mommy and Gracie playing in the beach sand.
(Yes, mommy is wearing jeans and a sweatshirt,
and Gracie is in shorts and a t-shirt... hmmm.)

Mark showing off daddy's hat.
Mark is so cute, Daddy might not get it back...

What a fun week! All of us are tired out.
Say "Good Night Gracie"...

  Be sure to take your little ones on an outdoor outing, whether it's the park, the pool, or the campground. The weather is already changing, and soon we'll be looking for indoor activities to keep little hands busy!

Bringing You SASS

Apparently Gracie's second birthday wasn't enough excitement for one week, because my husband and I, in all our wisdom, decided this would also be a great time to go camping for a few days.  I've been "unplugged" for the better part of the last three days, and while there is plenty to tell about the party and our camping experiences, I'm pooped. So, today I present my first "SASS" post.

SASS stands for 'Short And Simple, Sunshine'.  It should probably stand for Short and Snarky, or Short and Sneering, or Short and... well, you get the picture. Something tells me if I have to keep a post short, there's a good chance it will be a tad sarcastic. But not always. Hopefully.

Where was I? Oh yes, SASS. Since I've already massacred the Short part, I might as well ruin the Sweet part too. Here is just a little sampling of our camping trip this week:

See the little booger there on the lower right? Yes, we had a squirrel who was determined to get our food. He was quite bold too, as you can see. I wasn't rushing toward him as Robert snapped this picture. In fact, I had shooed him away twice before Robert even got the camera on and ready. As if keeping this little thief out of our hair wasn't enough trouble, as we walked to the lake that afternoon we saw this posted:

The bottom of this notice reads: "If you develop fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, or swollen and tender lymph nodes within seven days of your visit to this area, please inform your doctor that you have been in an area where rodents have plague."

Uh-huh. The camping trip was great. I'll be sure to fill you in with more later. Unless, of course, I get the plague.

The Ties that Bind

Last weekend I got some "time to myself". Ah, magic words for any mom. My husband asked when the baby was going to be fed next, and I told him I had half an hour. "I tell you what? Why don't you let me finish up what I'm doing here and you can get some time to yourself?"

Now, with only 30 minutes to start with, and hubby needing to "finish up", I knew this was a roll of the dice. But I have learned: you never turn down an offer of time away from the house without children. Fifteen minutes later, I was out the door. You know what I did with all that free time? I went to CVS and bought diapers. I even used a coupon and cashed in some Extra Bucks.

Yep! After seven days of constantly being with the Munchkins, instead of lingering (if only for a few moments) over a cup of coffee, or just going on a walk to clear my head, I bought diapers. And I was back with three minutes to spare.

Seriously. I need to get a life.

Except I have a life. A rather full one actually. It's just that it's full of... well, diapers. And Elmo. And teething tablets. (I would add "and cleaning" here, but I'd just be lying.) Being a mom is probably the single most important thing I have ever pursued. Motherhood deserves a lot of my time and attention. But not all of it. Starting today, I am going to try and remember what it was I did with my free time before I had kids - and the next time I have thirteen minutes to myself, you won't find me shopping for diapers.

Happy Birthday Baby

Photo Tinks by WiddlyTinks.com

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Can't believe you're two already...

We Love You!

Another Week Gone...

This week was "normal". Whatever that is. Gracie turns two on Saturday, so Mommy was busy preparing for that. (Translation: Mommy sent Gracie to "Dee-Dee" and Papa's house on Wednesday, and to Auntie Bonnie's the next! I did get lots done.)

Mark did hit two major milestones. He has a tooth coming in:

Yeah, I know. You can't see a thing.
It's there on the lower right... It's just that he did such a
good job trying to show everyone, I still had to post it.

And he had solid food for the first time!

(Mommy is very excited about this, as it is the first

step to getting her body back to herself!)

He was more than ready... he chowed down like a pro!

Faster, dad! Faster!
He would grab Daddy's hands in an effort to get the spoon
to his mouth faster. What a face!

To start the week, we had friends over to visit:

And this is the signature color for my fall couture line...

Jonah givin' Mark a little love!

Then Gracie got a gift from Grandma and Grandpa in Florida,

so we called them on Skype so they could see her open it:

(Skype is totally free, so if you have loved ones far away, I would encourage you to give it a shot! You need a high speed internet connection (not dial-up) and a webcam so they can see you. If the people you are calling don't have a webcam it's okay - they will still be able to see your kiddos, you just won't be able to see them.)

Grandma and Grandpa enjoy watching Grace try to figure
out how to open a gift.

An Elmo video about birthdays! Perfect! We've been watching
it all week in anticipation of the big day.

Mark also got a gift from Grandma and Grandpa:

Not as yummy as rice cereal, but I'll take it!

As usual, we did chores:

Gracie "helps" do laundry by taking it out of the basket and
throwing it on the floor. Great job Sweets.

And we picked up Mark's portraits from the studio:

(Gratuitous photo insertion of cutest baby boy EVER.)

To end the week, we had our cousins over to play and had great fun!

Gracie and Lizzie

Gracie and Katie

Gracie showing her cousin John the
new trick she learned this week.

John shows her up by jumping "like a big boy"!

Auntie Kim feeds Mark some rice cereal. Yum!

Thanks for sharing in our week once again. Be sure to encourage the little ones in your life this week, even if you have to Skype to do it!

Showered, not Shaved

Today was special.

I took a shower.

It wasn't naptime. It wasn't 4 am or 10 pm. Grace was awake. And she wasn't strapped, buckled or nailed down to anything. She was sitting in front of the t.v. watching Elmo and drinking a sippy cup of milk. How great is that?

I didn't linger. There was no enjoyment of hot spray melting away the tension. In fact, I was tense as ever, waiting for little feet to pad their way into the bathroom and a tiny nose to press up against the shower stall glass. The razor never got to make an appearance, and the conditioner was shunned. Lather, rinse, no repeat.

I was in and out in a matter of minutes, my heart racing as much from the excitement of this new freedom as from the fear of finding a two year old coloring on the walls, climbing onto the countertops, or worse - climbing into the crib with her brother. I shut off the water, threw on a towel, and almost ran down the hallway to peek around the corner...

And she was just sitting there. Right where I left her. Watching Elmo and holding a now empty sippy cup.

I always knew there would come a day when I could start to do things without having to constantly watch every move my kids made. A day where I could take a shower after the kids awoke and the house would still be intact when I got out. I just wasn't sure what age your children had to be for that to happen. I was hoping it was before they could vote.

Well, it appears that day has arrived! At least for now. Mark is already threatening to become mobile, in which case I will have to resort back to the strapping, buckling and nailing... but for now I intend to enjoy the small bit of freedom I have. Who knows? I might even shave.

The Perfect Parent

"Sunshine without rain makes a desert." - Arab proverb

It has taken me almost two weeks to summon the courage to write this post and share it with the world. I promised to share the sunshine and the rain...

Last week we didn't go to church. I can't remember why. This was a mistake. Since my  morning was suddenly free, I decided to go to the grocery store. Hubby could watch Grace, making it easier on me. My grocery total was $66.66. I should have high-tailed it home right then and gotten our back-ends in the nearest church pew. But I didn't.

When I got home from the grocery store, Robert gave me one of those "looks". The "I-need-a-break-from-our-offspring-pronto" look. Apparently while I was gone, Grace decided to try out some new tactics on daddy to see what the reaction would be. I didn't get the details, I just put away the groceries as quickly as I could and went to distract Grace in the hopes of keeping the peace.

Grace was in rare form this day. In hindsight, maybe it was good we didn't take her to childcare at church... they may not have let us come back. We went to run an errand, and Grace was unbelievable. She wouldn't obey, wouldn't come when I called her, and would scream "No!" if I went to pick her up or tried to stop her from destroying anything in a two foot radius. (Note: Just because she behaved this way, does not mean she didn't receive any discipline. She did. It just wasn't working. Is this what they mean by "Terrible Two's?")

Robert and I were pretty exhausted from the week prior and neither of us were exactly long on patience. We were tired, stressed, weary parents who had a long list of things to accomplish that weekend, and our teething son and testing daughter were not helping matters. So we did what any loving, supportive couple would do. We argued.

When two people are so completely drained of energy and sanity, they tend to fight about the things that are most important in the relationship.

We fought about Raisin Bran.

It started in the way many arguments do, with more attitude than words. We both knew the other was irritated, but we hadn't quite gotten up the gumption to turn it into anything more than that. Unfortunately, this was the moment Gracie decided she needed to use the potty.

I took her to the potty, as I am the "preferred poop parent" for some reason. The day had begun to take its toll on me though, and as she fluttered around the bathroom, checking out everything from the step stool to the bath toys, I began to lose patience.

I told her to "come here" and "put your pants on". And she didn't. A simple task that should take just a few minutes was turning into an ordeal, and I had lots of other things I needed to do.  So I got angry.

Very angry.

The problem, of course, is that I wasn't really angry with her. I was angry with Robert. But I was yelling at her. "Stop wiggling!" "Sit down!" "Pay Attention!" "COME HERE!" Yes, she was disobeying, but I knew in my heart it was unjust for me to be treating her the way I was. Even as the words tumbled out, I regretted what I was doing.

This is the point Robert came and paused in the doorway, adding another layer of irritation for me. Thankfully though, it stemmed the flow of words towards my daughter. Grace and I quickly finished up in the bathroom, but this became the catalyst for Robert and I to now argue in force.

This fight ended up being different from all previous arguments though. You see, this fight was the first one that Grace really noticed. As Robert and I argued with one another, Gracie began to cry.

"Mama! Mama!"

She was locked behind the baby gate, so Robert picked her up and told her it was OK. We were not mad at her and things would be fine. She calmed down, but as Robert and I continued, it was clear that Grace was affected. So I just walked away. I didn't know what else to do.

Because our argument was unresolved, I was still furious. As I prepared dinner, I banged pots and slammed cupboards. I could hear Grace playing with daddy though, and every once in awhile I would hear "Mama!" coming from the front room. After just a few minutes of venting in anger, I broke into silent tears.

My heart broke as my mind replayed the scene in the bathroom where I yelled at Grace. Tears streamed as I envisioned my little girl watching her mommy walk away while daddy held her. I didn't even look back or give her words of encouragement. What kind of a parent was I? How would I ever repair our relationship? She was so little, not able to understand my apologies or explanations.

I began to fear what was going to happen when she saw me next. What if she ran away, or didn't want me to touch her, hug her? The next twenty minutes were filled with anguish. Terrible scenarios ran through my head, even as the tears abated.

Finally, I heard the baby gate open, and turned to see Grace walking into the kitchen. Still afraid at what she might think of me, I began to cry anew as she simply walked up to me and raised her arms for me to lift her up.

Oh, sweet baby girl! I hugged her tightly, and as I buried my face into her hair, I whispered "I love you". With that, she put her small hand on my cheek. I pulled back my face to look at her, and she said:

"Nana! Cheese!" and pushed my face toward the banana lying on on the kitchen counter.

I know. Kind of anti-climatic. She didn't even look at me because she was so excited about a snack. After only a split second, the shock wore off, and I began to laugh. I loved this little one! While I was busy mentally torturing myself, she never once doubted that our relationship was anything but okay. And you know what? She was right. I love her with everything that I am.

A child is so quick to forgive, so quick to forget. Yes, there are many situations where their forgetfulness and lack of understanding can be frustrating. But it is so wonderful when those qualities combine with your shortcomings.

Before she went to bed that night, we snuggled on the couch and I looked into her eyes and apologized for my behavior. It saddens me to know this is not the last of my failures as a parent. I can only hope that with each one I'll learn how to do better next time, and always have the opportunity to apologize. Maybe there will even be snacks.

Little House of Horrors

Our garage door broke earlier this month. The spring just snapped. For this I am thankful. We had no idea, but the garage was trying to kill us.

My husband came back from running errands, and told me the garage door was no longer working and I'd have to park in the driveway until it was fixed. It's summer in Central California, which means that I either have to find a way to cool down the car before getting in, or risk needing skin grafts as the lava hot car seat melds itself with my thighs. Not only do I have to deal with the lava, but my children do too.

Okay, so those of you that live in normal areas may just think to turn on the air conditioning, go inside the house, get the kids, and when you come back out, things will have cooled to boiling - good enough. Well, did I also mention we live in the car theft capital of the WORLD? Oh yes, our county and those surrounding us regularly rank in the top five in the nation. Seriously. No one around here even leaves their doors open to cool off the car, much less turns the thing on and air conditions it for the theives just waiting around the corner.

I finally decided to bring Gracie to the car first, and chance leaving the windows open to help cool the car down. I figured she'd get used to the phrase "I'll be right back" and any thief worth their salt would know better than to try and steal a vehicle with a toddler in the back seat. Then I'd run back in to get Mark and my purse...

Errands would need to be kept to a minimum until this was fixed.

Thankfully, the landlords had the garage door fixed in just a couple of days. Before the guy got here, our garage door spring looked like this:

Snapped right in two. The repair man said he called about the warranty and could replace the left side with no problem, and it looked like the right side was... hey, what's this?

The right side of the door had this attached:

Apparently, holding together your garage door spring with a few bolts and a spare piece of steel you found lying around is frowned upon.

When the repairman saw that, he said "This could have killed somebody!". Not exactly what you want to hear when cradling your four month old in your arms. He needed to call the warranty guys again.

Please, please do.

In less than thirty minutes, the springs had been replaced, and I was summoned to sign the work order. "By the way," the repairman said "You also have these two fluorescent lights plugged into the overhead door opener. It's a fire hazard, and if anything ever went wrong with your garage door opener, the warranty would be voided because you're not supposed to rig the thing like this."

This was said very politely, but with the slightest hint of a smile that said we weren't the brightest people on the block. I felt the need to explain that we had only been renting a few months, and that none of these contraptions were our doing. He smiled smugly, unplugged the lights and then went on his way. (I would have taken a before photo of the lighting menagerie too, but was already too embarrassed and didn't want to ask him to wait so I could take a picture of our fire hazard for my blog.)

I now park in the garage. Gracie is still the first one to the car, and our seats are only habanero hot, as opposed to magma. But, I am most grateful for the fact that we no longer have fire hazards and guillotines awaiting our every move. Who knew the garage could be so hazardous?

Another Week Gone...

We didn't have anything planned this week, and didn't go anywhere or visit anyone. Well, we took a walk to the grocery store, but we only bought eggs... does that still count? I was afraid this lack of activity would make for a very mundane post. Obviously I haven't been doing this SAHM thing very long...

Our Monday started out with this:

It was after taking these pictures that I realized Grace not only filled up her potty....

...but the big potty too!

After fishing these out of the toilet (a great start to any Monday), we went to the living room to watch Elmo. Apparently the lack of her blankie did not deter Gracie from finding something to cover her lap...

What other kind of trouble can I think up for today?

Finally, while I was feeding Mark, Gracie went into the dining room and disappeared around the corner. It got very, very quiet. Never a good sign.

Gracie had unlocked the sliding glass door, opened it, gone outside and turned the sprinklers on! Oh boy.

And this was only Monday?

Thankfully the rest of the week proved fairly uneventful. We had lots of fun just playing here at the house. Here are the highlights of Another Week Gone...

We played Starfall. This is a great program for anyone who has pre-schoolers learning their ABC's or learning to read. We find ourselves spending about a half hour a day playing "Cees!".

Gracie also played with her brother on his play mat. He found this to be great fun, and she enjoyed trying to get his toys to him:

Blogger won't let me rotate this picture,
but mommy thinks it's too cute not to include!

We played with our puzzles. Gracie demonstrated the best way to hold the pieces, and made sure we each got a chance to try it out:

Just like this!

Great job Mark!

Here you go mommy!

Daddy got to come home from work early on Wednesday, so we played with him, and then took a walk to the grocery store, where they give out cookies to the kids for free. Gracie just started saying "Please" for the first time this week (previously she would only sign the word please, but not say it outloud) and was so cute asking for her "co-kee, peas"!

Fun with daddy, a.k.a. Jungle Gym

Evidence of her chocolate chip cookie
remained after our walk

Gracie also loves to help empty the dishwasher, and this week she helped me load it for the first time. Not too bad sweetie!

We really need to work on putting the plates a little farther apart...

Finally, I asked Grace to get into her high chair for lunch. This was the result:

As always, it was a very fun week. And despite not going lots of places, we still managed to tire our little ones out...

Hope you enjoy the little ones in your life this week!